When MrBeast, the most popular YouTuber, finally uploaded videos to X, Elon Musk’s request was granted. But after the influencer promised to reveal the exact amount of money the platform would pay out for the video, the world’s wealthiest man may have gotten a little more than he expected.
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, had previously stated at the start of the month that he would not be switching from YouTube to X because the latter platform “wouldn’t fund a fraction” of his production expenses.
Donaldson hinted on January 2 that he would make the change if monetization was “really cranking,” but the internet personality is already testing out the new platform barely 20 days later. But hold on a second. Instead of risking his content debut on X by himself, Donaldson is re-uploading a video that was originally published on YouTube four months ago.
After being uploaded to YouTube on September 16th, the video—in which MrBeast compares a $1 car to a $100,000 car—has received nearly six million “likes.”
Donaldson explained on X: “I’m curious how much ad revenue a video on X would make so I’m reuploading this to test it.” Then added: “Will share ad rev next week.” Perhaps Musk was expecting a bit more than that.
$1 Car vs $100,000,000 Car!!!
I’m curious how much ad revenue a video on X would make so I’m reuploading this to test it. Will share ad rev next week ❤️ pic.twitter.com/amSSmddFht
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 15, 2024
While other creators have revealed their earnings on the platform, none can compare to Donaldson in terms of audience size or production budget.
Donaldson has claimed in the past that his films cost “millions” to produce, meaning that no amount of advertising revenue—even if they were to have one billion views on X—could pay for them. Famous content creators like MrBeast have promised to reveal screenshots of the post’s earnings on January 22, so Musk won’t have to wait long to find out if they’re likely to stay.
Donaldson polled his followers last week to find out how much impact a post with 124 million views could have in just one week. Sixty-seven percent were optimistic that it would bring in $10,000, twenty-seven percent $100,000, and sixteen percent one million dollars or more.
The article promised to publish a screenshot of the review in three days. It is not unexpected that Donaldson’s followers are uncertain about revenue. X’s payment structure is convoluted. X claims on its creator dashboard that users can earn up to 97% of the content’s earnings.
The caveat is that this is after paying for in-app purchases, up to a maximum of $50,000 in lifetime profits from all X items combined. You can collect up to 90% of the money if you hit the $50,000 milestone.
How much revenue do you think my post on here with 124,000,000 views made?
Will share screenshot of rev in 3 days
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) January 19, 2024
The terms and conditions for creating subscriptions have additional restrictions, such as the following: “We may pay you a share of the revenue we have earned from the sale of subscriptions to access your account at a rate which will depend, in X’s discretion, on several factors.” Taxes, fees, the overall number of subscribers, and other variables all fall into this category.
X adds creators must “understand this and should have no expectation that any particular revenue percentage or amount will apply, or continue to apply, over time.”
It appeared like X’s reach impressed Donaldson. Is it 100 million views? Wow, that’s funny,” he captioned the video. More than 155 million views have been accumulated as of this writing, with the original video on YouTube boasting 215 million.
Feel free to check out our most recent posts, the links to which we have provided below: